This is totally going to get lost since today is Obama's day but Robert B. Reich has a great column in the Wall Street Journal about how to make a cap and trade carbon system both fair to consumers and good for the economy.

Reich's idea is to distribute profits from the cap and trade taxes directly to citizens.  It would kind of be like how Alaska lets its citizens share in oil revenues but it would have a good rather than bad effect on the environment and the economy.  In Reich's hypothetical, every adult American gets a $1,000 check a year.

Big industrial carbon users want to scare consumers out of supporting carbon taxes by saying that prices for manufactured products will go up.  But if the government pays the proceeds to every citizen, it won't matter if prices go up we'll be able to use the proceeds from the tax to cover any inflation caused by it.  Indeed, it's a transfer of corporate wealth to private citizens and that's a good thing.

It will also mean that once the carbon taxes are imposed, they'll be very hard to repeal.  Not even the best corporate lobbyists will be able to get congress to sign a law that puts an end to refund checks.

I like Reich's idea quite a lot.  I hope Barack Obama does too.